Work

Purpose: critical analysis of morphological features of Mesozoic taxa, key to establishing their systematic position and phylogenetic relationships; study of the complex characteristics of adults (wing veining, oral appendages and genitals) and larvae of fossils of Rhachiberothidae and Babinskaiidae (Neuroptera) Cretaceous compression deposits and resins of South America and Southeast Asia, and implementation of these data in morphology. Main tasks: 1. Carry out a taxonomic revision of fossil Mesozoic representatives of Rhachiberothidae and Babinskaiidae (Neuroptera), to establish the real level of taxonomic diversity of the Cretaceous. 2. To supplement the matrix of morphoparametric characteristics with features of fossil Rhachiberothidae and Babinskaiidae (Neuroptera). Analyze the phylogenetic relationships of modern and fossil genera of the two model families. 3. Elaboration of a collection of Burmese amber from northern Myanmar and the Krato Formation of Brazil, stored in the State Museum of Natural History of Stuttgart (Germany). Fossil Cretaceous taxa of the families Rhachiberothidae and Babinskaiidae (Neuroptera) were selected as objects of study. Expected results. A taxonomic revision of the fossil genera and species Rhachiberothidae and Babinskaiidae will be performed, and morphological features key to the dec_ription of Neuroptera Mesozoic diversity will be established. Thanks to the cooperation with paleoentomologists of the State Museum of Natural History of Stuttgart, we will be given access to the collections and research equipment of this institution. Thus, the collection of chalk Burmese amber (northern Myanmar) and the Krato Formation in Brazil will be processed. The results are expected to complement the matrix of morphoparametric features of fossils Rhachiberothidae and Babinskaiidae (Neuroptera), and will be the basis for the analysis of phylogenetic relationships between modern and fossil taxa within these two model families.